As the last trolley lumbered down Neil Avenue early on the morning of Sept. 5, 1948, an
83-year-old man who once operated horse-drawn streetcars in the city saluted.

David E. Huston said he drove the High Street route for four months in 1882. He said he was paid
$1.25 a day, working from 6:20 a.m. until 11 p.m., conducting 11 round trips between Ohio State
University and German Village. He eventually became vice president of Park Federal Savings and Loan
Co.

The transit system began switching from horse-drawn streetcars to electric ones in the 1890s,
and from streetcars to trolley buses — essentially electric buses that were powered by an overhead
grid — in 1933. The city switched from trolley buses to diesel buses in 1965.

The change, which took 15 years, was interrupted by World War II in 1941 and didn’t resume until
1947. Columbus and Southern Ohio Electric Co., which owned the city’s transit system then, took up
the rails in 1949, although stray bits of rail could still be seen Downtown through the 1970s.

At 12:20 a.m. on Sept. 5, 1948, streetcars at opposite ends of the Main-Neil line started their
final journeys, which ended a short while later at the car barn on Kelton Avenue. The last
streetcar on Neil Avenue, No. 704, was piloted by Motorman Rollie O. Baker, 65. He had the longest
service of any “streetcar man.”
The Dispatch reported: “He has been on the Main-Neil line continuously since 1910.”

Immediately ahead of No. 704, members of the Central Ohio Railfans Association rode a special “
guest car.”

All the cars,
The Dispatch reported, were headed toward the junk pile.

Shortly after the last cars passed, electric-company crews began working on the overhead
electrical-grid system so that trolley coaches could begin operating at 5:30 a.m.

Suggestions for Mileposts that will run this bicentennial year can be sent to Gerald Tebben,
Box 82125, Columbus, OH 43202, or email
gtebben@columbus.rr.com.